Friday 15 June 2007

The end of a long week

It seems as though this week has been going on for ever, so I'm glad to be enjoying a wee drink and a chance to watch First Minister's questions.

I finally moved into the new office I'll be sharing with Bailie McDonald, Cllr. Mackay, and Cllr. Dunn today. In shifting the piles of bumpf I've acquired from the north side of the west building to the south side of the east building, I discovered that gallantry is dead among certain members of the Labour group. It took a couple of trips, and on my first and second trips, I was clearly struggling to open a security door; they stopped, looked, and walked on. I always hold doors open for people, and help when people look as though they need a hand. On my last trip, Councillor McAllister was kind enough to hold open the door for me, so at least I know the SNP guys aren't lacking in manners!

The first of the culprits was nice enough to compliment me on my letter in today's Scotsman in the Executive Committee later in the day, but I would rather have had a hand with the door! Also, does that mean he knows who I am and didn't help me as a result, or he only knew who I was in Committee because my name was on a card in front of me?

Incidentally, the Executive Committee meeting this fortnight was a bit of a marathon - more than thirty points on the agenda, some pretty contentious issues which required debate and others which went through on a mere nod. It lasted for three and a half hours, and Labour's majority meant they never got close to losing a vote. It's frustrating that no matter how convincingly we put a point, however correct, logical and passionate we might be, we're unlikely to change the decision. Perhaps as time goes on, things will change - I gotta hope.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reason will prevail? Unlikely. This is politics. How about instead we try actually to let the people these councillors represent how bloody- and closed-minded they are so that in a few years time we'll have the luxury of being open-minded or otherwise.

BellgroveBelle said...

If I believe that nothing will change, I'll get hideously depressed about the next four years. Can I at least hope that some of them will keel over?

Anonymous said...

I think there's a fairly good chance some of them will keel over. The City Chambers has what must be one of the few places (the only place?) in the world where the healthy salad bar includes pork pies. Maybe we just need to encourage more of them to eat in?

BellgroveBelle said...

Good idea!

The "healthy choice" meal is also usually a comedy one - roast chicken with all the trimmings usually... will have to start taking note.